Beyond the Shore: To Seek After Sadness

Elizabeth Schafer

Daughter of one of the Superintendents of Convicts aboard the HMS Guardian.

Description:

Elizabeth is the daughter of Lt. John Schafer, a commissioned officer of the Imperial Army, and a gypsy girl he met while on deployment in France. Although illegitimate, Lt. Schafer, being an honorable man, adopted Elizabeth and brought her back to England when his deployment ended, much to the chagrin of his family. Unwilling to give up the child of his indiscretion, Lt. Schafer was passed over for many a preferment and several potentially beneficial marriages in the 11 years since his return, and has finally accepted an appointment as Superintendent of Convicts aboard the HMS Guardian, bound for the Australian colonies.

While attractive in the exotic way of her mother’s tribe, Elizabeth suffers much stigma from being both a gypsy and a bastard. Taken away from her home in France and her mother at the age of 5, and raised by a grandmother who very clearly hated her, Elizabeth, now 16, is a very quiet (some might say mousy) girl, prone to lurking in shadows and avoiding much public contact. She is very much looking forward to her new life in the South Pacific, even if it must be in a penal colony, as it at least has gotten her away from the stuffy English society that so clearly hated her, and has allowed her to spend more time with her father than ever before.

Elizabeth learned the basics of magic and herbcraft from her mother’s people as a small child. Because she had no prospects of marriage, her grandmother treated her as a servant and required that she learn a trade, to which she spent much time learning the crafts of barbering and grooming, and the subtleties of service as a ladies maid. Prior to leaving the mainland, she sank her small savings into acquiring several barrels of ale, mead, and wine, in hopes of making a profit selling it to the convicts-cum-settlers when they reach the colonies (figuring that such things would be in high demand).

Affinity for Nature: A half-Vistana character can accurately identify the plants and animals of the world, just as druids do. He can also determine whether water is safe to drink. This ability requires no more than one round of examination on the part of the character and always succeeds (barring the influences of magic, curses, domain lords, and such).

Fire Building: All giomorgo characters make fires easily and quickly. Provided that fuel and some means of igniting a blaze is at hand, they can start a fire in 1d4 rounds. Normally restrictive conditions, like damp fuel and such, do not affect the giomorgo abilities.

Tralaks: Half-Vistani are familiar with tralaks (a series of glyphs used by the Vistani). In order to recognize a given symbol, the character must make an Intelligence check. If that check succeeds, the Dungeon Master secretly rolls 1d20. On a roll of 1 to 19, the character correctly identifies the meaning of the tralak. If the roll is a 20, however, the character misreads the symbol and gets its meaning wrong.

Lunatic: On the three nights of the month when the moon is full, a half-Vistana character will find himself restless and unable to sleep. Because of this, he cannot heal wounds without magical aid and is utterly unable to memorize new spells. The physical toll that this takes on the body imposes a -2 penalty on all saving throws made during this time; this penalty lasts until the character can rest undisturbed for eight hours.
In addition to the above physical effects, the lunatic induces mental trauma as well. On each of the three nights of the full moon, a half-Vistana character must make a successful madness check (described in Chapter Six) or be overcome with this unusual lunacy. A failed check causes the character to gradually take on the aspects of a beast of the night. A single failed check means that the half-Vistana slips away from his companions to run wild under the stars. A second failed check indicates that the giomorgo also becomes aggressive and even violent during these wild times. Should he fail all three of his madness checks, the character has the mind of a wild, violent savage until the moon changes its phase.

Tribe (Vatraska): Known for their skill as healers and herbalists, the Vatraskan player character tends to be cold and somewhat condescending. Despite their natural gift for healing, these characters are seldom priests. No other restrictions are placed upon their choice of character classes. All members of this tribe automatically begin play with the herbalism proficiency and can purchase the healing proficiency at the cost of only one slot, regardless of their chosen class.

Vatraskan characters can identify poisons as easily as a druid might recognize a specific type of plant. In addition, they can concoct an antidote to any poison if they have access to a store of herbs or plants and have ten minutes (one turn) to work. Because these antidotes are very powerful, the recipient must make a successful saving throw vs. poison or die from them. Thus, the cure can sometimes be worse than the poison.

In addition to their skill with antidotes, Vatraskan characters can create an herbal sleeping draught. They must spend 1d6+1 days gathering the herbs and concocting the draught, which can actually take the form of either a liquid or a powder. This toxin, though odorless and tasteless, turns water slightly red. Once ingested, this chemical forces the imbiber to make a successful saving throw vs. poison or fall asleep for 1d4 hours. The sleep is normal enough, and the victim can be awakened easily after the first hour has passed. When the character uses this ability, he creates 1d4 doses of this potion, which retains its potency for only seven days.

Class Abilities:

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Shadow walkers are not well trained in the art of combat. For that reason, these characters are restricted to the use of one-handed, small weapons. They are forbidden to employ bows or crossbows but may learn to use slings (though not staff slings) and throw darts.
Recognizing their vulnerability in combat, shadow walkers allocate some of their early training to the mastery of armor. As a result, they may wear leather, studded leather, or padded armor, and may cast their spells when wearing such. Heavier types of armor, even the delicate elven chain, are forbidden to them. Similarly, shadow walkers are unable to employ shields to defend themselves.

Magic Items: Shadow walkers devote a great deal of time to the mastery of magical devices. They can use any item intended for thieves but not those fashioned specifically for bards. They can use magical items intended for wizards as well but must always take care when doing so. Because of this, they suffer a -4 penalty to their initiative roll when using magical items intended for wizards in combat.

Backstabbing: Although they might lack some of the other abilities of traditional thieves, shadow walkers are highly skilled at the art of backstabbing. This is especially true at higher levels, when their magical powers make it almost impossible to spot them lying in ambush (see Special Abilities).
Shadow walkers gain the traditional +4 bonus to their attack rolls when making a backstab attack. In addition, the backstab damage modifiers listed on Table 30 in the Players Handbook apply just as they would for thieves.

Thieves’ Cant: Shadow walkers are able to learn the secret language of thieves but must allocate a proficiency slot to do so. A single proficiency slot allows the shadow walker to use thieves cant in conjunction with any other languages that he speaks.

Thief Skills: Of the eight thief skills, only five are available to shadow walkers. These are open locks, find/remove traps, move silently, hide in shadows, and detect noise. The pick pockets, climb walls, and read languages skills are not available to shadow walkers. With each experience level the character advances, the player receives an additional 25 points to distribute among his thief skills as he sees fit.

Spells: Shadow walkers are only able to learn spells from the Abjuration, Alteration, Illusion/Phantasm, and Lesser/Greater Divination schools. Shadow walkers do not have the ability to research new magical spells or create magical items.

Night Vision: A shadow walkers eyes are naturally attuned to darkness and are able to register more subtle illumination sources than normal humans can. They can see normally in all but absolute darkness. The range of their night vision is equal to 10 feet per experience level.

Shadow Aura: Upon reaching the 3rd level of experience, a shadow walker is able to raise a semimagical aura of darkness about his body. This increases his ability to hide in shadows by 25% if the character has at least one round to prepare himself. Once the shadow aura is erected, he can maintain it for a number of rounds equal to his level. This power can be used three times each day.

Shadow Cloak: When a shadow walker attains the 8th level of experience, he can assume a shadowy form. This makes him invisible (as the spell) in dimly lighted areas and increases his chance to hide in shadows by 50% in other places. As with the shadow aura, this requires one round to manifest and can be maintained for a number of rounds equal to the level of the character. This ability may be employed three times in any 24-hour period. When wrapped in his cloak of shadows, the character is uncommonly vulnerable to light-based attacks. Any weapon or spell that causes damage via light has a +2 bonus and causes normal plus half damage. Saving throws the character makes as a result of light-based special attacks have a -2 penalty.

Shadow Form: After he reaches 12th level, a shadow walker becomes truly attuned to shadows and darkness. If he has one round to mentally prepare himself, the character may totally transform himself into an animate shadow. The effects of this power are similar to those of the wraithform spell, except the character is also invisible in all but the brightest light. As with the lesser abilities of this class, the character can maintain this power for a number of rounds equal to his level and can employ this power three times in any 24-hour period.
When in this form, however, the character is very vulnerable to light-based attacks. Any saving throw the character makes against such an attack suffers a -4 penalty. Any attack against the character that causes damage with light inflicts double damage and has a +4 bonus on any applicable attack roll.

Legend Lore: All barbers have a bard’s ability to discern the general use and purpose of a magical item. For thieves, it’s 3 percent per level. Limitations are as noted under “Bards learn a little bit of everything” in Chapter 3 of the Players Handbook.

Wizard Spells: as 1st-level Mage

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Paths Known: The Garden Path, The Path of Counterspells, The Path of Shadows